2020 Penn State Nittany Lions football team

The 2020 Penn State Nittany Lions football team was to represent the Pennsylvania State University in the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The team were to be led by seventh-year head coach, James Franklin.

2020 Penn State Nittany Lions football
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Division	East Division
Ranking
Coaches	No. 7
Head coach	James Franklin (7th season)
Offensive coordinator	Kirk Ciarrocca (1st season)
Co-offensive coordinator	Tyler Bowen (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Spread
Defensive coordinator	Brent Pry (5th as DC; 7th overall season)
Co-defensive coordinator	Tim Banks (5th season)
Base defense	4–3
Home stadium	Beaver Stadium (Capacity: 106,572)

2020 Big Ten Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
East Division
Indiana			–							–
Maryland			–							–
Michigan			–							–
Michigan State			–							–
Ohio State			–							–
Penn State			–							–
Rutgers			–							–
West Division
Illinois			–							–
Iowa			–							–
Minnesota			–							–
Nebraska			–							–
Northwestern			–							–
Purdue			–							–
Wisconsin			–							–
Championship: TBA
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant Note: Due to COVID-19, the Big Ten suspended the 2020 football season. As of August 14, 2020; Rankings from AP Poll.

On August 11, 2020, the Big Ten Conference cancelled all fall sports competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference expressed the possibility that a season could be played in the spring of 2021.[1]

Previous season

The Nittany Lions finished the 2019 season 11–2, and had a conference record of 7–2. They received an invitation to the 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic where they defeated the #17 2019 Memphis Tigers 53–39. Penn State finished the 2019 season ranked #9 in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll.

Offseason

Staff changes

2020 NFL Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Team
2	38	Yetur Gross-Matos	Carolina Panthers
2	46	K. J. Hamler	Denver Broncos
4	141	John Reid	Houston Texans
6	183	Cam Brown	New York Giants
6	193	Robert Windsor	Indianapolis Colts
Undrafted		Steven Gonzalez	Arizona Cardinals
		Nick Bowers	Las Vegas Raiders
		Garrett Taylor	Buffalo Bills
		Jan Johnson	Houston Texans
		Blake Gillikin	New Orleans Saints
		Dan Chisena	Minnesota Vikings

Recruiting

The Nittany Lions signed 27 recruits during the 2020 signing cycle, securing the 15th ranked recruiting class in the country. This was Penn State's fourth consecutive top 15 recruiting class. 11 of the 27 signings in the 2020 class enrolled early.

Transfers

Returning starters

Offensive returning starters (8)

Player	Year	Position	2019 Games Started
Sean Clifford	Senior	QB	13
Journey Brown	Senior	RB	13
Rasheed Walker	Junior	OL	13
Mike Miranda	Senior	OL	8
Michal Menet	5th-Sr	OL	13
C.J. Thorpe	Senior	OL	5
Will Fries	Graduate student	OL	13
Pat Freiermuth	Junior	TE	13

Preseason

Preseason Big Ten poll

Preseason All Big Ten

Award watchlists

Personnel

Coaching staff

Penn State football current coaching staff[2]

Name	Position	Alma Mater	Years at Penn State
James Franklin	Head Coach	East Stroudsburg University (1995)	7th
Brent Pry	Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers	University at Buffalo (1993)	7th
Kirk Ciarrocca	Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach	Temple University (1990)	1st
Tim Banks	Co-Defensive Coordinator/Safeties	Central Michigan University (1995)	5th
Tyler Bowen	Co-Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Recruiting Coordinator/Tight Ends	University of Maryland (2010)	3rd
Phil Trautwein	Offensive Line	University of Florida (2007)	1st
John Scott	Defensive Line	Western Carolina University (2000)	1st
Taylor Stubblefield	Wide Receivers	Purdue University (2004)	1st
Ja'Juan Seider	Run Game Coordinator/Running Backs	West Virginia University (2000)	3rd
Terry Smith	Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Recruiting Coordinator/Cornerbacks	Penn State University (1991)	7th
Joe Lorig	Special Teams Coordinator/Outside Linebacker	Western Oregon University (1995)	2nd
Dwight Galt III	Assistant AD, Performance Enhancement	University of Maryland (1981)	7th
V'Angelo Bentley	Graduate Assistant	University of Illinois (2015)	2nd
Jeff Carpenter	Graduate Assistant	Penn State University (2015)	1st
Deion Barnes	Graduate Assistant	Penn State University (2014)	1st
Wendy Laurent	Graduate Assistant	Penn State University (2016)	1st

Rosters

Depth Chart

Schedule

Spring game

Date	Time	Network	Spring Game	Site	Result	Attendance
April 18	1:30pm	FS1	Blue vs. White	Beaver Stadium • University Park, PA	Canceled

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Penn State, like other institutions, switched to distance-learning during the spring semester and canceled all sporting events.

Regular season

The Nittany Lions are a member of the Big Ten East Division, and will play all of the division's other six members. Cross-divisional opponents include the Iowa Hawkeyes, Northwestern Wildcats, Nebraska Cornhuskers, and Illinois Fighting Illini.

Three out-of-conference opponents were originally scheduled: a road game at Virginia Tech, and home games versus Kent State and San Jose State.[3]. However, these non-conference games were canceled on July 9 as a result of ongoing concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][5] The 9-game conference schedule increased to 10 games, adding cross-divisional opponent Illinois.[6]

Date	Opponent	Site	Result
September 5	Northwestern	Beaver Stadium State College, PA
September 12	at Indiana	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN
September 19	at Michigan	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI
September 26	Michigan State	Beaver Stadium State College, PA (Land Grant Trophy)
October 3	at Rutgers	SHI Stadium Piscataway, NJ
October 17	Maryland	Beaver Stadium State College, PA (rivalry)
October 24	Iowa	Beaver Stadium State College, PA
October 31	at Nebraska	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE
November 7	Ohio State	Beaver Stadium State College, PA (rivalry)
November 21	at Illinois	Memorial Stadium Champaign, Illinois
Rankings from AP Poll and CFP Rankings (after November 3) released prior to game

Schedule Source:[7]

Game summaries

Statistics

Scores by quarter (Big Ten opponents)

1 2 3 4 Total Big Ten opponents 0 0 0 0 0 Penn State 0 0 0 0 0

Rankings

Further information: 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP
Coaches	7
CFP	Not released																Not released

References

1. "Big Ten Statement on 2020-21 Fall Season". bigten.org. August 11, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
2. "Football Coaching Staff". GoPSUsports.com. Penn State Nittany Lions. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
3. https://fbschedules.com/ncaa-2020/team/penn-state
4. Myerberg, Paul (July 9, 2020). "Big Ten football reduces season schedule to only conference games, maybe setting stage for others to follow". USA Today. usatoday.com. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
5. Dinich, Heather; Schlabach, Mark (July 9, 2020). "Big Ten moving to conference-only model for all sports this fall". ESPN. espn.com. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
6. Pickel, Greg (August 5, 2020). "Penn State's 2020 college football schedule is out; here is who the Lions will face this fall". Penn Live. pennlive.com. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
7. https://gopsusports.com/sports/football/schedule/2020